John Ritchie, Scottish act. 1858-1875- Mon Amour pour Marianna vivera toujours; oil on canvas, signed, inscribed and dated 1854, 45x55.5cm Provenance: David Letham, Edinburgh Note: This work is by the Victorian artist John Ritchie, who was active in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This piece demonstrates Ritchie’s interest in depicting the landscape which surrounds his sitters, with the scenes illustrated in his paintings typically situated outside. In this way, this work reveals Ritchie’s romantic fascination with the British countryside, and the influence of the contemporary Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement on the artist’s work. Richie’s depiction of figures examining a stone inscription in a wooded setting also recalls the classical history paintings of artists such as Nicolas Poussin, imparting a sense of grandeur on an otherwise tender scene. The artist’s best known works remain two paintings which he exhibited at the Liverpool Academy in 1858, entitled A Summer Day in Hyde Park and A Winter Day in St James’s Park. Ritchie also frequently returned to the depiction of genre scenes with figures in sixteenth-century costume, as in The Huguenot Conventicle Suppressed, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858. Please refer to department for condition report